Madhury Ray
40 Under 40 Class of 2021
Woodside, New York
Director of Data Analytics for Childcare, COVID-19 Health Equity Data Lead
New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
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At points in my career, I’ve heard that you can either do data or policy, but not both. You can do clinical medicine, or you can do community engagement. While these ideas may have been relevant at some point, my lived experience has taught me that multiple intersecting identities can add up to something greater than the sum of its parts. I believe that that ‘something greater’ is necessary both to understand the complexity of the systems public health must tackle and to invent the new systems that must be built to replace them.
Three words to describe me:
dynamic, collaborative, innovative
The best part of my job:
NYC is in many ways a microcosm of the world – both in the diversity of its communities and also in the landscape of the public health threats it faces.
Something that would surprise others about me:
I’ve traveled and lived all around the former Soviet Union, and I was part of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine! Also, I was on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."
From her position at the intersection of medicine, data, health equity. and public health in the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Dr. Madhury (Didi) Ray has helped address the pronounced disparities in COVID-19 transmission, hospitalizations, and mortality in neighborhoods where many Black and Brown communities reside. To help level the playing field, Didi and her team utilized data and operational analyses to leverage resources across NYC government to locate testing sites, engage with groups who hadn’t received public health messaging, and address specific fears in tailored information sessions with trusted leaders, among other initiatives. Didi has fulfilled several roles in the COVID-19 emergency response, from standing up vaccine hubs to convening critical care leaders around crisis response to developing a model for physician-led community engagement.Â
Didi completed her MD at the Drexel University College of Medicine, earned an MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health with a specialization in global health and a concentration in humanitarian studies, ethics, and human rights, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Ukraine during the Orange Revolution. Â
